Adjustable protective maternity belt

ABSTRACT

An adjustable protective maternity belt includes a protective belt, a waist protection board and at least one adjustment belt. The protective belt has two fastening straps. The adjustment belts are connected with the fastening straps. The waist protection board is connected with the fastening strap of the protective belt and also with the adjustment belts which are respectively positioned on the lower and upper belly of the pregnant woman.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates generally to an adjustable protectivematernity belt, and more particularly to a maternity belt, which canprovide waist protection and decreased back soreness for a pregnantwoman. Moreover, the maternity belt can minimize the risk of humpback ofthe pregnant woman.

2. Description of the Related Art

During pregnancy, a pregnant woman often suffers waist soreness andbackache. It is caused by the change of the body attitude of thepregnant woman. At the middle stage or later stage of pregnancy, apregnant woman often feels soreness of the waist, pain over the back dueto deformation of the lumbar, humpback and low fetal positioning, whichmay also lead to premature birth.

A conventional maternity belt is able to relieve the belly of a pregnantwoman from gravity load so as to prevent the pregnant woman's body fromunnaturally tilting backward. This can minimize the waist soreness andbackache of the pregnant woman. In order to relieve the symptom of waistsoreness and avoid abnormal fetal position and uterine prolapse, adoctor will generally suggest that a pregnant woman starts to use amaternity belt at about middle stage of pregnancy according to personalrequirements.

FIG. 1 shows a conventional maternity belt 1, which includes aholding/supporting section 10, a first fastening strap 11 and a secondfastening strap 12. The holding/supporting section 10 has a wider mainbody. The first fastening strap 11 is sewn on one side of theholding/supporting section 10 and extends thereof. A fluffy loop tape 13is sewn on outer face of the fastening strap 11. A hook tape 14 is sewnon inner face of a free end of the second fastening strap 12. Referringto FIG. 2, in use of the conventional maternity belt 1, theholding/supporting section 10 is first positioned on the lower belly ofa pregnant woman. Then the first and second fastening straps 11, 12 arewound over two sides the waist of the pregnant woman to the backthereof. Then the hook tape 14 of the second fastening strap 12 is stuckto the loop tape 13 of the first fastening strap 11 to achieve a bellyholding/supporting effect.

The conventional maternity belt can simply provide bellyholding/supporting effect for a pregnant woman with limited waistsupport design. Therefore, a pregnant woman still needs to use her waistand back as forces of support for her belly. As a result, the load onthe waist of the pregnant woman is increased. Moreover, the conventionalmaternity belt has a fixed length. However, it is known that the bellyof a pregnant woman will become bigger from early pregnancy to latepregnancy stage. The length of the maternity belt fastening straps maybe either too long or too short for a pregnant woman to wear. Also, theconventional maternity belt does not have enough back support toalleviate the back pain that frequently happened during the post-partumperiod as a result of bad posture during the neonatal care. Therefore,the pregnant woman cannot conveniently wear the conventional maternitybelt or it may even be impossible to wear.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is therefore a primary object of the present invention to provide anadjustable protective maternity belt. The maternity belt is able to holdand support the belly of a pregnant women. The position and tightness ofthe adjustment belts can be adjusted according to the change in the sizeof the pregnant women's belly. For pregnant woman in their second orthird trimester or even during the post-partum stage, the waistprotection board is applied to the back of the pregnant woman andconnected with the adjustment belts and protective belt respectively.The adjustment belts and the protective belt were then positioned on theupper and lower belly of the pregnant woman. Accordingly, the holdingand support force of the protective belt is enhanced to share the loadon the lumbar area of the pregnant woman. Therefore, the pregnant womancan wear the maternity belt more comfortably to relieve the waistsoreness and achieve a waist and back protection effect. Moreover, thematernity belt can also minimize the risk of humpback for pregnantwoman.

To achieve the above mentioned functions, the adjustable protectivematernity belt of the present invention includes a protective belt, awaist protection board and at least one adjustment belt. The protectivebelt has a wider protective cover body and two narrower fastening strapsintegrally extending from two sides of the protective cover body.Fastener members are disposed on inner faces of free ends of thefastening straps. The wider protective cover body of the protective beltserves to hold and support the lower belly of a pregnant woman. Theadjustment belts are connected with the fastening straps and wound overtwo sides of the waist and around the back of the pregnant woman andattached to the opposite side of the protective belt. The maternity beltcan be applied to a second or third trimester pregnant woman to providea belly holding/supporting effect. The waist protection board is alsoapplicable during the latter pregnancy stage or the postpartum period asneeded. The waist protection board includes a substrate enclosed in afabric layer, multiple supporting members are disposed on the substrateand the connection tapes are disposed on the outer face of the substrateas well. The supporting members serve to support the lower back of thepregnant woman. The fastening straps of the protective belt are woundover two sides of the waist of the pregnant woman to connect with theconnection tapes of the waist protection board. In this case, theprotective cover body and the waist protection board are respectivelypositioned on the belly and the back of the pregnant woman. Theadjustment belts are connected with the connection tapes of the waistprotection board and wound over two sides of the waist of the pregnantwoman to the upper belly of the pregnant woman and connected with eachother. Under such circumstance, the belly holding/supporting force ofthe protective belt is enhanced and the pregnant woman can morecomfortably wear the maternity belt to relieve the waist and backsoreness.

The present invention can be best understood through the followingdescription and accompanying drawings, wherein:

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a conventional maternity belt;

FIG. 2 shows that a pregnant woman wears the conventional maternitybelt;

FIG. 3 is a perspective exploded view of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a perspective exploded view of the protective belt andadjustment belts of the present invention;

FIG. 5 shows that the present invention being applied on a pregnantwoman with a change in her belly size as pregnancy progress;

FIG. 6 shows that the adjustment belts are connected to each other;

FIG. 7 shows that a pregnant women with increased in belly size wearingthe present invention;

FIG. 8 shows that the adjustment belts are connected to the waistprotection board;

FIG. 9 is a view according to FIG. 8, showing that the location wherethe adjustment belts are connected to the waist protection board and maybe adjusted as necessary;

FIG. 10 is a perspective view of the waist protection board of a secondembodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 11 is a perspective view of the waist protection board of a thirdembodiment of the present invention, in which the waist protection boardhas elongated connection straps.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Please refer to FIG. 3. According to the first embodiment, theadjustable protective maternity belt of the present invention includes aprotective belt 2, at least one adjustment belt 3 (two in the drawings)and a waist protection board 4.

The protective belt 2 has a wider protective cover body 20 and twonarrower fastening straps 21, 22 integrally extending from two sides ofthe protective cover body 20. The protective cover body 20 and thefastening straps 21, 22 can be integrally made from one piece of clothby tailoring. Fastener members are disposed on inner surfaces of freeends of the fastening straps 21, 22. The fastener members can be a hook,loop fasteners, snap fasteners or buttons. In this embodiment, thefastener members are hook tapes 23. (One of the hook tapes 23 is notshown). By means of the fastener members, the protective belt 2 can beconnected to the waist protection board 4. Each adjustment belt 3 is anelongated belt body. Fastener members are disposed on both inner andouter faces of two ends of the adjustment belt 3. The fastener memberscan be a hook, loop fasteners, snap fasteners or buttons. In thisembodiment, the fastener members disposed on the inner faces are hooktapes 31, 300 and the fastener members disposed on the outer faces areloop tapes 30, 310. By means of the fastener members, the adjustmentbelts 3 can be connected to the waist protection board 4 or thefastening straps 21, 22 of the protective belt 2.

The waist protection board 4 includes a substrate 40 enclosed in afabric layer, several fabric pockets 400 disposed on outer face of thesubstrate 40 for receiving support members therein, and upper and lowerconnection tapes 43, 44 fixedly disposed on the outer face of thesubstrate 40. The upper and lower connection tapes 43, 44 have fastenermembers, which can be a hook, loop fasteners, snap fasteners or buttons.In this embodiment, the fastener members are loop tapes 42. Theadjustment belts 3 are connected to the upper connection tapes 43, whilethe fastening straps 21, 22 of the protective belt 2 are connected tothe lower connection tapes 44. The above components can be assembled indifferent stages according to the conditions of a pregnant woman for thepregnant woman to wear.

Please refer to FIGS. 4 to 6. Even though the belly size of a pregnantwomen during the second trimester may not be as big as during the thirdtrimester, the waist and lower back of the pregnant woman still bear aconsiderable load. When a pregnant woman wears the maternity belt of thepresent invention, the wider protective cover body 20 of the protectivebelt 2 serves to hold and support the lower belly 50 of the pregnantwoman 5. The loop tapes 30, 300 of the adjustment belts 3 are connectedto the hook tapes 23 on the narrower fastening straps 21, 22 integrallyextending from two sides of the wider protective cover body 20. Then theadjustment belts 3 are wound over two sides of the waist and around thelower back of the pregnant woman 5. Then two ends of the adjustmentbelts 3 be attached to the opposite side of the wider protective coverbody 20. (as shown in FIGS. 5 and 6). In this case, the protective belt2 is positioned on the lower belly 50 of the pregnant woman 5 to providesupport and protection effect. The sticking position of the adjustmentbelts 3 can be adjusted according to the change in belly size of thepregnant woman 5 to achieve the best support and comfort. Therefore,when wearing the maternity belt of the present invention, theuncomfortable feeling of the pregnant woman 5 is minimized (withreference to FIG. 6).

As the pregnancy progress, the belly of the pregnant woman 5 becomesbigger (as shown in FIG. 7). Under such circumstance, the waistprotection board 4 is positioned on the back of the pregnant woman 5 andthe narrow fastening straps 21, 22 of the protective belt 2 are woundover two sides of the waist of the pregnant woman 5 to the waistprotection board 4. The hook tapes 23 at the end of the fastening straps21, 22 are attached and fixedly connected to the loop tapes 42 of thelower connection tapes 44 of the waist protection board 4. In this case,the wider protective cover body 20 and the waist protection board 4 arerespectively positioned on the belly and the back of the later pregnancystage pregnant woman 5. In addition, the hook tapes 31 at the end of theadjustment belts 3 are stuck to the upper connection tapes 43 of thewaist protection board 4. Then the adjustment belts 3 are wound over twosides of the waist of the pregnant woman 5 to the upper belly of thepregnant woman 5. The hook and loop tapes 300, 30 on the inner and outerfaces of the adjustment belts 3 are stuck and fixedly connected to eachother. Eventually, the adjustment belts 3 and the fastening straps 21,22 of the protective belt 2 are respectively connected to the upper andlower connection tapes 43, 44 of the waist protection board 4 andlocated (as shown in FIG. 8). Accordingly, the support force applied bythe protective belt 2 to the lower belly is enhanced and the sorenessand discomfort of the waist and back of the pregnant woman are relieved.

Referring to FIG. 9, the positions where the fastening straps 21, 22 andthe adjustment belts 3 are attached and connected to the upper and lowerconnection tapes 43, 44 of the waist protection board 4 can be adjustedso the upward supporting and holding force of the protective cover body20 may applied to the belly of the pregnant woman 5. Accordingly, thelate pregnancy stage pregnant woman 5 can comfortably wear the presentinvention with a best belly support effect.

FIG. 10 shows a second embodiment of the present invention, in which thewaist protection board 4 is different from that of the first embodiment.In the second embodiment, multiple closed envelopes 6 are disposed onthe outer face of the waist protection board 4. The envelopes 6 (may beinserted with a gas or liquid-filled container) to improve thesupporting functions. This embodiment is applicable to woman in herearly pregnancy who bears smaller load on the waist and spine. Thisembodiment can also provide soreness relieving and waist protectioneffect.

In case of length insufficiency of the fastening straps 21, 22 of theprotective belt 2 and adjustment belt 3, the connection tapes 43, 44 canbe elongated to form elongated connection straps 7 (as shown in FIG.11). Under such circumstance, the fastening straps 21, 22 and adjustmentbelt 3 can be conveniently attached and fixedly connected to theelongated connection straps 7.

The above embodiments are only used to illustrate the present invention,not intended to limit the scope thereof. Many modifications of the aboveembodiments can be made without departing from the spirit of the presentinvention.

What is claimed:
 1. An adjustable protective maternity belt comprising:a protective belt having a wider protective cover body and two narrowerfastening straps integrally extending from two sides of the protectivecover body, the protective cover body serving to hold and support lowerbelly of a pregnant woman; a waist protection board including asubstrate enclosed in a fabric layer, multiple fabric pockets disposedon outer face of the substrate for receiving support members therein,and connection tapes disposed on the outer face of the substrate, theconnection tapes having fastener members disposed on surfaces of theconnection tapes, the fastening straps of the protective belt beingwound over two sides of the waist of the pregnant woman to connect withthe fastener members of the connection tapes of the waist protectionboard; and at least one adjustment belt including an elongated belt bodyand fastener members disposed at two ends of the elongated belt body forconnecting with the connection tapes of the waist protection board, theadjustment belts being wound over two sides of the waist of the pregnantwoman to upper belly of the pregnant woman and connected with eachother.
 2. The adjustable protective maternity belt as claimed in claim1, wherein the fastener members are hook and loop fasteners.
 3. Theadjustable protective maternity belt as claimed in claim 1, wherein thesubstrate of the waist protection board is a soft pad.
 4. The adjustableprotective maternity belt as claimed in claim 1, wherein the fastenermembers of the connection tapes are hook and loop fasteners.
 5. Theadjustable protective maternity belt as claimed in claim 1, wherein thefabric pockets of the waist protection board are envelopes inserted witha gas or a liquid-filled container.
 6. The adjustable protectivematernity belt as claimed in claim 1, wherein the support members arestands adjustable in hardness.
 7. An adjustable protective maternitybelt comprising: a protective belt having a wider protective cover bodyand two narrower fastening straps integrally extending from two sides ofthe protective cover body, the protective cover body serving to hold andsupport lower belly of a pregnant woman, fastener members being disposedon inner faces of the fastening straps; and at least one adjustment beltincluding an elongated belt body and fastener members disposed at twoends of the elongated belt body for connection with the fastening strapsof the protective belt, the adjustment belts being wound over two sidesof the waist of the pregnant woman, continued around the back of thepregnant woman and attached to the opposite side of the protection belt.